Something Worth Protecting
by Dyslexic CSI
Summary: 'You hand us the baby and we'll give you one of ours' Mann said. The boy thought for a second before settling his gaze on Kate 'I want her' he said and before Gibbs could say anything he grabbed Kate by the hand and pulled her to his chest.


Disclaimer: Property of CBS and Donald Bellarius

A/N: It's been a while since I wrote an NCIS fic and I thought I should try one so that I didn't lose touch with it. I haven't watched it in ages, seeing as my new addiction is House MD and well we're on an NCIS drought here in my country… This hasn't been beta-ed yet, will replace this one with the new version as soon as I get it...

Also in my twisted world Twilight and Judgement Day never happened so Kate and Jenny are still alive and kicking…

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**Something Worth Protecting**

The sound of his phone ringing disturbs the peaceful silence he has enclosed himself in, not wanting the outer world to intrude on his thoughts as he applies the last layer of varnish across the smoothly sanded wood. After a while his cell phone stops ringing and vibrating and his land line starts and Gibbs knows that no matter how hard he tries to ignore the calls, the person on the other end is simply not going to give up. He thinks of disconnecting his fixed line and switching off his mobile just to get some peace, but he knows that too would be a waste of time, so he simply answers the damn offending piece of technology.

"What?" he growls in the receiver, not bothering to hide both his irritation and annoyance at their disturbance of his peace and quiet.

"Gibbs?" he hears Abby's soft voice coming through the earpiece and while he tries to keep calm, he can feel his heart starting to thump behind his rib cage.

"It's Kate…" she says and it is all the blue eyed, silver haired, Special Agent needs to hear as he gathers up his brown coat and straps on his Sig Sauer to his hip before walking out the door toward his car.

The drive to his Goth Lab Tech's home is a blur, his mind focused on one thing only… to help his agent get through the day's events. Abby answers the door on his third knock and stands aside to let him in. Gibbs has to only take two steps before he sees his dark haired agent seated on the end of the sofa, curled into a foetal position, her body shaking furiously and her eyes squeezed shut. He slowly walks toward her not wanting to traumatise her more than she already had been, and seats himself on the couch next to her.

"Kate," he calls her softly, but she doesn't hear him and so he repeats himself, this time his voice slightly louder.

"Kate," he says and he knows she has heard him because her eyes open instantly and scan the room until they find him.

Chocolate brown lock onto cobalt blue and Gibbs watches as the tension slowly dissipates from his agent's body, but his mind is still uneasy because he has yet to hear her voice and he knows that she probably hasn't said anything since that afternoon. The eerie silence is broken when they hear Abby's phone start ringing and the dark haired lab tech hurries to answer it, only to find that she has in fact been called back to work on a case for another team. Gibbs doesn't wait for her to say it, instead he suggests taking Kate to his place until she Abby is done with her work and can return home to keep an eye on her friend.

The drive to his place is a silent one, and while Gibbs is usually okay with less talk, he really wishes Kate would say something that would alert him that she's slightly okay, because he really doesn't expect her to be one hundred percent after the day she's had. He diverts his attention from the quiet road to focus on her for a few seconds, taking in the way she is curled up in the passenger seat, her gaze looking unfocusedly on the road. The shadows the street lights cast on her face don't do anything to ease his fear, instead they increase it and soon enough he can feel the beast in his chest rise, his anger at the stupid, young imbeciles who had tried to rip her away from him. The sound of another car's horn jars him out of his thoughts and Gibbs once again turns his attention to the road, his mind still running at a mile a minute.

Before even realises it, he's parked in his driveway, already making his way out of the car and over to the passenger side to help Kate out and lead her to his front door. He doesn't bother taking her to his spare bedroom on the other end of his house; instead he guides her to his basement, helping her down the stairs and into his small place of refuge. Gibbs seats her down on the old, heap of junk he calls a sofa and once he's sure that she's as okay as she can possibly be, he heads back up to his kitchen and returns a few minutes later with a mug and a bottle of scotch. Its not his preferred drink, but he's not sure if she can handle bourbon at the moment and she's in no state to answer him so he settles on giving her generous shot of scotch, hoping It would help ease her nerves and hopefully help her sleep easier as well.

Gibbs watches as she takes a sip of the golden brown, sweet, liquid and he almost reaches out to comfort her when her face contorts with pain as the liquid burns her throat as it races down her oesophagus and into her stomach, clearly taking out at least one layer of the lining of her upper digestive tract. But he's not a man who shows or shares emotion easily so he refrains from touching her, even though both his brain and heart are screaming at him to do so, and he knows that's a bad sign because when it comes to a specific Special Agent Caitlin Todd his heart and brain are always at war. An hour and a half, and three quarters of the bottle later, Gibbs resumes varnishing his boat as Kate lies on the sofa in the corner, silent tears rolling down the side of her face.

He is once again disturbed, this time by knocking on his front door, and just as before he decides to ignore it, knowing that if it was something important Jenny or one of his other team members would find another way to contact him. He's also fairly certain that after the events of earlier that day none of them want to be within a fifty foot radius of him or his temper. Which means whoever is knocking annoyingly on his front door is clearly unaware of the bubbling rage in him or they haven't heard of the term self preservation. When even after ten minutes of waiting for him to answer they don't bother leaving, Gibbs heads up to answer his door, hoping to scare whoever it is away. He is in no mood to deal with anything else right now.

He unlocks the door and violently pulls it open, a string of curse words ready to fly out of his mouth, but he stops himself at the sight of her… Of all the people in the world he does not want to see, this woman in particular is not a woman he even wishes to be in the same room with for a very long time. Not after the little stunt she had pulled earlier that day.

N C I S

Earlier that day…

Gibbs and his team were seated at their respective desks in the bullpen when Director Jenny Sheppard slowly descended the stairs that led from the fourth floor landing to the third floor. She came to a stop at Gibbs's desk and waited for the silver haired man to turn his attention to her. When he showed no sign of doing so, Director Sheppard slapped down a sheet of paper on his desk, knowing he would not be able to read it without the help of his glasses, and proceeded to inform him of his team's next case.

"Colonel Mann has requested that you and your team help out the CID with an ongoing investigation. She will be here in fifteen minutes to update you on what they have so far…" she had only managed to get that far before Agent DiNozzo interrupted her.

"Why are they calling NCIS, they usually don't like to share so why are they being so chummy now?" he asked and while no one else voiced the question they all wanted to know the answer to it.

"I don't know," Jenny admitted, "the order came from the higher ups, there was nothing I could do to stop it" she told them knowing that Gibbs would not take her word for it, even though it was the truth, but for some reason Tony believed her.

Colonel Mann had arrived on time as Jenny had told them and briefed them on the case they were currently investigating. Once she was done Gibbs simply nodded his head and his four agents merely picked up their backpacks and holstered their weapons as they all followed him to the elevator and ultimately down to the parking lot where they would pick up the already gassed and loaded trucks. He had let McGee, DiNozzo and Ziva drive to the crime scene in the truck while he had called Kate to ride with him in the sedan. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut, and while each of his team members had been put in danger more than once, it was his gut instinct to have Kate near him when he felt this way.

They arrived at the abandoned warehouse ten minutes later, and much to Tony's disapproval the place was swarmed with CID officers as well as a few FBI agents whom he ha recognised when he had worked with Agent Fornell a few months ago. From the update they received from one of Mann's team members it appeared that there were three petty officers who had been dealing drugs to school kids on the army base and now that their business had been discovered and exposed they didn't know what to do and in the heat and panic of the moment one of them had kidnapped their commanding officer's four month old child and was holding him hostage. The team had worked out a plan of action involving only them while the rest of them would stand by as back up if it all went downhill.

McGee, Gibbs and Kate had gone into the warehouse to assess the situation as well as get a read on the petty officers while Tony and Ziva remained outside, and positioned themselves so that their guns were trained on two of the three suspects. While Gibbs had seen and dealt with a lot of different and complicated situations in his job, this was one he was clearly not prepared for. One of the petty officers, who didn't look a day older that eighteen, had strapped a bomb to his own chest and was holding a screaming baby in his hands, while the two others stood a bit to the side, their guns trained on the CID officers who had managed to actually enter the warehouse before Gibbs and his team had arrived.

Not wanting to scare the kid any more than he had to, Gibbs took a tentative step in his direction, and was about to take another when the agent saw the boy tighten his hold on the wailing baby. There was no way Gibbs was going to both of them alive and he knew he would have to try and coax the boy into giving him the baby before anyone got hurt. McGee had already alerted Ziva and Tony to hold their fire, knowing that even if they did have a shot, no one would survive if the maniac of a kid decided to detonate the bomb strapped to his chest. He heard Ziva curse under her breath as Tony let out a sigh of frustration.

"You don't want to do this," Gibbs said as he made eye contact with the young man.

"And you don't know what I want," the boy retorted.

"What's your name?" McGee called out from behind, knowing it was easier when they knew the names of the psychotic people they were dealing with.

"Lucas Jameson," the boy answered.

"Okay Lucas, give us the baby and we'll work on a deal," Gibbs heard Mann's voice and while the anger shot up through him, he kept his face devoid of all emotion. Clearly she had not been paying attention when he had mentioned that he did not offer deals to dirtbags, or she had deliberately said it to piss him off, either way Gibbs was not happy about it.

"What makes you think I'm going to hand over my bargaining chip so easily?" the boy asked them.

"He's less than a year old, he doesn't even know what's going on, and if you want a bargaining chip then fine, we'll hand one to you," Mann said before Gibbs could say anything, and thus angering him even further.

"Okay," Lucas said after a while which eased his fear, but increased it too when he realised what Lucas was thinking.

"Since you offered to hand me one, I want her," he pointed directly at Kate and for a fleeting second Gibbs hoped he had heard wrong. It was his eyesight that was deteriorating, not his hearing.

"NO!" Gibbs shouted, not okay with the idea of using Kate as a pawn in a stupid hostage situation. There was no way he was going to send his agent to a boy who was crazy enough to strap a bomb to his chest, but Mann had already taken a few steps forward and was waiting for the boy to hand her the wailing baby, with her arms outstretched.

Kate was standing a foot away from her and once the baby was safely grasped in her arms Mann stepped back, not even offering to keep Kate safe, instead she turned her back and walked away, allowing the nut-job of a teenager to grip Kate's arm and pull her into him. Gibbs felt as his heart rate increased and each breath he took become more laboured. This was his worst nightmare come true…

"You do realise the consequences of holding an NCIS agent hostage, don't you? Plus with the amount of cocaine we found here, it's going to be a long time before you even get to see the sun rise or set," McGee's voice was stronger than he thought it would be and for that he was grateful. He knew what was going through his boss's mind, and while he knew Gibbs would play it cool until Kate was safe, he was not sure he could stay cool, not when it came to Kate…

"Well in a few minutes it's really not going to matter because neither of us will be here. If I go down, so does she," the boy said and Gibbs felt his blood turn cold. And with that he took one step back, pulling Kate with him. Gibbs caught her gaze and he saw the fear in her eyes, and he was sure it mirrored his own. This somehow seemed a lot worse than when Ari had kidnapped her all those years ago.

Lucas was still retreating when his foot caught on something and he fell to the ground, pulling Kate with him. For a few seconds Gibbs held his breath, slightly relieved when the bomb did not go off, but he knew he had to get Kate away from Lucas. He was still trying to come up with an idea when he heard Kate's voice yell out "Run Gibbs," and he knew then there was no way she was going to come out of this alive. He turned to look at McGee who stood rooted to his spot, not daring or wanting to leave his team mate behind.

"Go," Gibbs commanded in the tone he knew his youngest agent would obey without question and watched as McGee reluctantly walked away. The others followed McGee but Gibbs remained in the warehouse; he was not leaving without Kate. He had almost lost her once he was not about to do so again. Gibbs had barely turned his attention back where Kate and Lucas were now standing when he noticed the small movement Lucas made and his mind went into overdrive. He took one step forward but he found it was of no use when he felt the impact of the blast hit him square in the chest, knocking him to the ground…

The next thing he remembered was waking up in the back of an emergency vehicle, his chest hurting like hell, but his mind still focused on Kate. He needed to see her, he needed to know what happened in the time he had passed out to now, and he was not going to get it while he was lying on a damn stretcher. Without a thought of his own well being Gibbs sat up and pulled the heart monitor cords off his chest, then he put on a T-shirt and stepped out of the vehicle, all ready to look for his agent. The first person he saw was Tony who by the looks of it was not injured and then he saw McGee being checked out by a medic. Mann was standing with Gibbs assumed was the baby's parents, a small smile plastered on her lips as though she was telling him it was a job well done.

He walked further, not heeding the voices of the people calling out to him, warning him not to enter the building.

"Gibbs," he heard Ziva's voice next to him, and while he did not want to hear what she had to say at that moment, he turned to look at her nonetheless. As he did so he saw his Special Agent Caitlin Todd standing next to her, one of Ziva's hands gripping Kate's upper arm firmly tying to hold her up.

He did a full once over of her. Her cheeks were scratched and there were tear streaks running down them. Her knuckles were torn and red, indicating she had fought to get free, and Gibbs smiled internally at her bravery, or stupidity he did not know. Still she was alive and that was all that mattered for the moment, anyway. The rest they could deal with at a later stage.

"Katie," he called but Kate barely registered that he was standing in front of him, let alone the sound of his voice. He resisted the urge to touch her and simply nodded his head. He allowed the Mossad agent to take Kate away from this hell hole, to somewhere familiar, maybe to Abby's place while he made his way back to the office with the boys. Director Sheppard had already been briefed on what had occurred and she had thankfully not come down to ask for explanations, something they were all grateful for.

N C I S

"I thought no one was home, the door's locked and the porch light isn't on," she started but stopped when she saw the look he levelled at her.

"You should go," he said, not allowing her to finish the rest of her sentence.

"I brought food, and I thought you might want company after what happened this afternoon," clearly Mann did not get the message.

"Nope," he really didn't see the need for this conversation.

"How's Kate?" she asked after a short silence.

He was still debating on whether to answer her when the sound of footsteps caught their attention causing Mann to frown at him. Without asking permission she entered his home, but came to a stop when she saw Kate standing in the doorway that led to the basement. And that was when the realisation hit her.

"You never locked the door when I came by," she said and Gibbs shook his head.

"Didn't feel the need to."

"And you do with Kate, it's like she's more important to you than I am," Mann said.

The lack of a response from Gibbs was all the confirmation she needed as Mann turned on her heel and walked out his house and out of his life…

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Also if you are a House MD fan then check out my newish fic 40 Weeks…


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